I am the Director of Cognitive Science at Columbia University, where I am also a Lecturer in the Discipline of Cognitive Science in the Department of Philosophy.
My research focuses on general philosophical foundations of cognitive science, as well as on the nature of scientific evidence. I am currently focused on developing philosophical foundations for resource rationality and resource rational analysis as a methodological strategy in cognitive science.
I am also a coordinator of ALIUS, an international and interdisciplinary research group devoted to the scientific investigation of consciousness, especially alternative states of consciousness.
I completed my PhD in the History and Philosophy of Science at the University of Pittsburgh, where I primarily worked with Colin Allen, and was a member of the Center for the Neural Basis of Cognition.
Before that, I completed an M.S. in Symbolic Systems at Stanford University.
I did my undergraduate work at Tufts University, where I double majored in Philosophy and Cognitive and Brain Sciences (and minored in Religion).
contact: bf2555@columbia.edu
In my spare time, I enjoy learning about history and religion, exercising, yoga, wu tai chi, and foraging for chanterelles in the Catskill Mountains.
My beagle mixes (see their mother) enjoying a visit to my parents' home in the Catskill Mountains.